Daily Tech Digest by Kannan Subbiah

January 23, 2013

For most companies, NoSQL & Big Data are misunderstood at best, or hype at worst
As you know, Big Data is so large that it's difficult to process using traditional databases and software techniques. Of course, the relational model and SQL dominate today's database landscape. But on the other side there are databases built without relations, made for higher scalability. So, we asked the expert in the database area, Monty, about the current and future state of SQL, NoSQL and Big Data. And his answers were somewhat surprising:

Large companies run with BYOD as workers cover costs
Seventy-six percent of companies supporting bring your own device policies have more than 2,000 employees and there's a good reason for that. Half of employees under BYOD policies have to foot the device and wireless costs, according to a report from Good Technology.

Micron introduces its highest-endurance MLC SSD for servers
The P400m SSD's endurance is the equivalent to writing every picture posted to Facebook daily to the drive for 311 days straight (about 78 billion photos total), Micron said. By comparison, Micron's entry-level SSDs offer one to three full drive writes per day and a midrange SSD offers about five full drive writes, according to Matt Shaine, Micron's product marketing manager for enterprise SSDs.

Download: Information Governance Research Report
Discover what smart IT leaders are doing to make sure business exectuives are fully grasping the wide range of strategic advantages information governance can bring.

Windows Workflow and Timeouts
Workflows make it easy to do something that's very hard to do in any other development environment: Take action when something doesn't happen. Here's how to protect yourself when something's isn't happening in your Windows Workflows.

Big Data for Development: From Information - to Knowledge Societies
The article uses an established three-dimensional conceptual framework to systematically review literature and empirical evidence related to the prerequisites, opportunities, and threats of Big Data Analysis for international development. The opportunities and threats around big data has potential to result in a new kind of digital divide: a divide in data-based knowledge to inform intelligent decision-making. This shows that the exploration of data-based knowledge to improve development is not automatic and requires tailor-made policy choices that help to foster this emerging paradigm.

Has Ayasdi turned machine learning into a magic bullet?

At its core, Ayasdi’s product, a cloud-based service called the Insight Discovery Platform, is a mix of distributed computing, machine learning and user experience technologies. It processes data, discovers the correlations between data points, and then displays the results in a stunning visualization that’s essentially a map of the dataset and the connections between every point within it.

German Government Should Make its Software Available As Open Source, Committee Advises
Germany should change a law to enable public administrations to make their software available as free and open source, a German parliamentary committee has advised. German public administrations currently are not allowed to give away goods, including software, said Jimmy Schulz, a member of Parliament and chairman of the Interoperability, Standards and Free Software Project Group in an email Thursday. The current law prohibits governments from being part of the development process in the free software community, he said.

Indian insurers to spend 101 bn rupees on IT in 2013
Indian insurers are about to go on a spending spree! Market research and advisory firm Gartner predicts that insurance firms in India will spend 101 billion rupees on IT products and services in 2013, an increase of more than 9 per cent over 2012 when they spent an approximate 92.5 billion rupees.

When Big Data Goes Bad
The break between the viability of Big Data and the efficacy of analysis lies not in the actual analysis, but rather in perspective. Ultimately, what we are talking about is not about the value of a data point, but how multiple data points interrelate with one another. How does one determine causation as opposed to allowing causation to validate an analysis?

Quote for the day:

"If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near." -- Jack Welch

January 22, 2013

Incentive-based pricing models for your next IT outsourcing contract
Traditional IT outsourcing contracts are typically based on a fixed price for a set scope of work, or a set price per number of units: Vendors are paid to provide a utility function (for example, managing servers, monitoring network devices, ensuring email is available). Incentive-based pricing, on the other hand, rewards vendors for adding benefit to the service: cutting costs, boosting revenue, improving efficiency, for example. But getting there isn't easy.

Software-Defined Storage: A Buzzword Worth Examining
The adoption and propagation of new market terminology is not some conspiracy by the vendor community to confuse everyone. There is absolute value in the various types and components of SDS. But we need some context and specificity to uncover that value, and even more of that context and specificity to enjoy and benefit from that value in any given user environment.

Experience
It unfolds over the intervals necessary for assimilation and integration; however, the passage of time alone is no guarantee of learning and we shouldn’t confuse grey hairs with experience. ... Experience can’t derive from being a bystander in the classroom or on the assembly line: You have to be in the game. It means diving in, doing work, building stuff, and taking risks.

Businesses finally see ROI for IT security
Almost two-thirds of organisations regard IT security as the responsibility of everyone within the enterprise, not just the IT department, the survey found. Some 38% of respondents said their organisations see investment in IT and systems security as an "insurance policy" to protect company assets.

Who’s on deck? 3 questions for succession planning
The moment after you land the corner office, you need to be thinking about who will replace you. Your legacy lies in the hands of your successor. How you are perceived by others when you are gone relies greatly on the person you select to replace you.

New bill asks companies to notify EU of security breaches
Proposed legislation in the European Union would force tech companies that have access to user data -- such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft -- to report any security breaches to local cybersecurity agencies, the Financial Times reported today. This is the European Commission's effort to make private companies accountable for privacy and security problems, European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes told the Financial Times.

The Best and Worst Methods for Enterprise Architecture
From a strategy basis, Burton recommended the following three-tier approach for enterprise architecture project leaders: Change the way you think: Frame every comment in terms of business outcomes, value and business performance; Show value for money, meaning the right services at the right level of quality and the right price; and Position EA in investment terms, including near- and long-term business performance.

Sitting Is the Smoking of Our Generation
As we work, we sit more than we do anything else. We're averaging 9.3 hours a day, compared to 7.7 hours of sleeping. Sitting is so prevalent and so pervasive that we don't even question how much we're doing it. And, everyone else is doing it also, so it doesn't even occur to us that it's not okay.

Asia needs regional cybercrime center
Myla Pilao, director of core technology at Trend Micro's TrendLabs, said since most of today's online crimes are becoming borderless, Asia-Pacific will need a centralized agency to help examine the crimes that have taken place and supply necessary threat information across member states. Such a cross-region agency will also provide the impetus for Asian governments to adopt stronger legislations encompassing various crimes committed online so as to deter cybercriminals, Pilao added.

Confused by the glut of new databases? Here’s a map for you
The flurry of database action over the past year rendered the usual discussion around structured or unstructured, SQL, NoSQL, and NewSQL databases even more, um, nuanced than before. Matthew Aslett, research manager at 451 Research took the bull by the horns and updated his previous (one-month-old) database road map to include all sorts of new entries.

Doubt cast on the security of Kim Dotcom's Mega service
The problem is that SSL has long been recognized as a weak point on the web. In 2009, security researcher Moxie Marlinspike created a tool called SSLstrip, which allows an attacker to intercept and stop an SSL connection. The attacker can then spy on whatever data the user sends to the fake website.

Quote for the day:

"We must view young people not as empty bottles to be filled but as candles to be lit." -- Robert Shaffer

January 21, 2013

Practical SOA for the Solution Architect
Most IT practitioners often lose sight of the core principles of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). This article and its extended white paper are a retelling of the SOA philosophy in an easily understandable and practically applicable form, independent of the actual tools used to implement it. It is specially targeted to the Solution Architect, because at the end of the day, SOA is nothing but a way to put components together to build flexible, durable and reusable business solutions, and the solution architect is the person responsible for this outcome.

Why Functional Programming in Java is Dangerous
Elliotte Rusty Harold writes: The problem is that my colleagues and I are not writing code in Haskell, Scheme, Lisp, Clojure, Scala, or even Ruby or Python. We are writing code in Java, and in Java functional programming is dangerously inefficient. Every few months I find myself debugging a production problem that ultimately traces back to a misuse of functional ideas and algorithms in a language and more importantly a virtual machine that just wasn’t built for this style of programming.

Don't SCIM over your Data Model
SCIM used to stand for "Simple Cloud Identity Management" but now stands for "System for Cross-domain Identity Management", which is more generic. This article looks at some aspects of the SCIM protocol as currently published. The three major areas where SCIM’s underlying data model is somewhat inadequate: Tight coupling of identifiers; Inelegant handling of multi-valued attributes; and Clumsy PATCH command syntax

'Rogue Clouds' Giving IT Staffs Nightmares
"Rogue clouds" occur if sales and marketing people, for example, order up Salesforce.com without bothering to consult IT or set up Dropbox with outside vendors to share sensitive information. It's happening to three-quarters of those using cloud, according to the survey, and it occurs more in large enterprises (83%) than in small to midsize ones (70%).

7 CES Announcements IT Pros Need to Know About
The Consumer Electronics Show is not only about consumer gadgets, as enterprise vendors such as Dell and Intel tend to announce major new technology advancements as well. CES 2013 was no different. Here are the top business tech announcements from Las Vegas.

Security is no place for traditionalists
Traditional security professionals adhere to a certain philosophy which can be detrimental to their cause. Traditionalists believe that IT risk is a technical problem, handled by technical people, buried in IT and every problem is solved with a new technology. Also, they view themselves as heroes hired to protect the company at all cost.

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
An interesting periodic table of visualization methods for management by Lengler R., Eppler M. (2007).

Google looks to ditch passwords for good with NFC-based replacement
Google is currently running a pilot that uses a YubiKey cryptographic card developed by Yubico — a start-up operated out of Sweden and the US, which has produced a two-factor authentication fob that can emit encrypted one-time passwords to NFC-enabled smartphones.

CIOs say cloud computing is really, truly a priority this time
At least CIOs finally get it: Either figure out a way to leverage cloud technology, or get into real estate. Although this technology is still emerging, the value of at least putting together a plan and a few projects has been there for years. The business cases have always existed. Despite those obvious needs, many CIOs have been secretly pushing back on cloud computing.

Microsoft Cloud OS Vision Unfolds With New Products, Services
"with Windows Server and Windows Azure at its core, the Cloud OS provides a consistent platform across customer data centers, service-provider data centers and the Microsoft public cloud," Park said in a statement. "Powerful management and automation capabilities are key elements of the Cloud OS, taking the heavy lifting out of administration and freeing IT organizations to be more innovative as they embrace hybrid cloud computing and the consumerization of IT."

Quote for the day:

"The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed." -- Lloyd Jones

January 20, 2013

The secret to making risk management a profit maximizer
Bank Leumi has implemented four separate new systems specifically to manage risk. However, perhaps the most important change in our institution is cultural – recognizing and responding to the nature of risk. For example, traditionally, many banks have defined their risk exposure in terms of the upper limit of loan volume – how much money did they give to that group or that sector or that geography?

The Year Ahead in Enterprise Software, Services M&A
Amidst steady revenues and innovation, the enterprise software and services sector is also privy to regular buyouts and mergers. In its recent annual review of industry mergers and acquisitions, advisory Berkery Noyes noted a drop in transaction values, though with an asterisk of bustling growth in certain areas.Information-Management.com asked for a view of the year ahead in vendor consolidation and buyout from Berkery’s CIO Jim Berkery and Managing Director Mary Jo Zandy.

The all new 2013 overview of CEMMethod
In this presentation, Steve Towers, BP Group walks you through the main features of CEMMethod an evolution in BPM thinking and practice leading to Outside In. You may regard this as the WHAT of the method. Accessing the HOW and associated resources is also discussed at the end of this overview.

Make A Point or A Difference – It’s Your Decision
Your goal is to influence. Not make a point. Your actions will speak much louder than your words (points). You can take a stand or find a common cause to unify behind. Great leaders and organizations find a common cause or greater purpose. People will get behind and rally for a greater purpose. They don’t need another point!

YouTube Dynamic AJAX / JSON Search API Demo
YouTube offers various APIs to allow websites to do pretty much anything they could otherwise do on the YouTube site. You can search for videos on YouTube from your site, upload videos, get a user's favorites, the "featured videos", and the list goes on. This article shows how to search dynamically for YouTube videos (by levereging the JSONP technique), parse the JSON response metadata to get attributes such as play count, rating of a video, etc. This site has a live demo of dynamic search and embedded player.

Tech hotshots: The rise of the UX expert
In a mobile application, it is better to cleanly provide the 20 most important pieces of information than force people to navigate through 100 that they might never use. "We learned that you have to drop completeness in the name of usefulness." ... Developers with user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) expertise are hot these days, according to Shane Bernstein, managing director of QConnects, a Culver City, Calif.-based digital recruitment firm.

Do you need to uninstall Java to be safe from its vulnerabilities?
The vast majority of Java's security problems revolve around the use of the Java plug-in. While the vulnerabilities ultimately exist in the runtime, the plug-in is the avenue that malware developers use to exploit these remotely. You are somehow tricked into loading a Web page that contains a malicious Java applet, which exploits the fault and loads malware on to your system. If you close this off or otherwise manage it, then you will vastly improve the security of your system, and can continue to use Java for other purposes without needing to remove it completely.

Identity Management on a Shoestring
It is neither a conceptual treatment of Identity (for which we would refer the reader to Kim Cameron's excellent work on the Laws of Identity) nor a detailed technical manual on a particular product. It describes a pragmatic and cost-effective architectural approach to implementing IAM within an organisation, based on the experience of the authors. Don't miss to download the free pdf mini book.

The Consequences of Stupid Management Concepts
Many commonly-held management concepts in use today have their roots in what is actually asset management, and are the theoretical children of the old axiom that the ultimate purpose of all management is to “maximize shareholder wealth.” Slavish adherence to the family of management concepts that are derived from this axiom lead to policies and tactics that are monumentally stupid, and do a lot more damage than just to an organization’s bottom line.

How to Define, Build, and Obtain Cloud Skills for Your Enterprise
The core problem is that we’ve yet to define what “cloud-related jobs” are, and most hiring managers have no clue how to write the job descriptions as of yet. This is due largely to the fact that most enterprises do not yet have cloud computing strategies in place. Thus, if you don’t know where you’re going, you can’t plan on how you’re going to get there.

Quotes for the day:

"The twin killers of success are impatience & greed." -- Jim Rohn

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

January 19, 2013

ETL to ELT Conversion Testing in Data Warehouse Engagements
The concept of ELT data warehouse technology came into existence because of the high business demand for error-free, high-quality input data in data warehouse systems. Here the approach is bottom-up. The data is initially extracted to a staging area, where the business rule and integrity checks are performed. With ELT, the load and transformation processes are decoupled from each other.

Get a free IT or corporate compliance plan template for assessing risk
SearchCompliance.com has scoured the Web for free IT and corporate compliance plan templates and downloads for organizations looking to shore up their compliance strategies.While not all specifically aimed at the IT organization, they provide sound guidelines for building a targeted corporate compliance plan, as well as ensuring regulatory compliance at all levels of the enterprise.

Microsoft's December Azure outage: What went wrong?
Some of the nodes didn't have node protection turned on. The monitoring system for detecting this kind of problem had a defect, resulting in no alarms or escalation. On top of this, a transition to a new primary node triggered a reaction that led to an incorrect formatting of other nodes. Normally, according to the post, Azure should have survived the simultaneous failure of two nodes of data within a stamp, as the system keeps three copies of data spread across three separate fault domains.

The problem with a Lean Startup: the Minimum Viable Product.
When most people hear the concept of Lean Startup, they think bootstrap startup, ya know lean on funding. While this isn’t always true it’s suprisingly still prevelant thinking. Perhaps Eric Ries should have done an MVP of the movement’s name and received some user feedback on it before writing the book.

Are e-visits as good as office appointments?
"All over the country, more and more of these e-visits are taking place," said Dr. James Rohrer, a family medicine doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who has studied online care. Insurance companies believe e-visits will save money, he said. For patients, the biggest benefit is convenience - including that they don't have to schedule the appointment beforehand.

Create sacred space as a way of honoring yourself and others
Consider slowing down enough to honor yourself and those who follow you. Begin this new year with a way to revere and respect others. Observe those times that are calling you to be fully present in order to deepen relationships within the sacred space you’ve created. Take a deep breath (it’s amazing what a little extra oxygen can do), and consider how you can devote some time for yourself or others in ways that make the space you occupy (alone or together with others) sacred.

Cybersecurity to be part of India's college, university curriculum
Cybersecurity is set to be introduced as a subject in universities and technical colleges in keeping with the recommendations of a task force on National Security System. University Grants Commission (UGC) has written to all the vice chancellors in this respect, asking them to introduce the subject both at under-graduate and post-graduate levels, sources said.

Apache Isis: Java Framework for Domain-Driven Design
Apache Isis works using convention-over-configuration where developers write POJO domain objects following a set of conventions and annotations. These are then interpreted by the Isis framework, which then takes care of presentation, security and persistence. Apache Isis can generate a representation of the domain model, at runtime, as a web application or as a RESTful API following the Restful Objects specification.

Security vendors failing to tackle mobile malware, say CISOs
Malware is still the biggest threat to mobile security, but most mobile device management (MDM) strategies tend to focus on securing the physical device in case of loss of theft, rather than protecting from cyber threats, according to Peter Gibbons, head of Information Security at Network Rail.

Korea’s Malware Infection Rate Increases Six-fold in Six Months
Data from the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report volume 13 indicates that Korea’s malware infection rate (Computers Cleaned per Mille or CCM) increased 6.3 times during the first half of 2012. During this period the number of systems cleaned per 1,000 systems scanned by the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) in Korea increased from 11.1 in the fourth quarter of 2011 (4Q11) to 70.4 in the second quarter (2Q12) of 2012.

Quote for the day:

"People are persuaded by reason, but moved by emotion; the leader must both persuade them and move them." -- Richard M. Nixon

January 18, 2013

Business architecture takes the fore in application portfolio analysis
Experts say that a shift to business-focused application portfolio management is currently under way. As part of that shift, business architecture is taking the forefront in application portfolio analysis. Such business architecture techniques as activity and business process models are used to align the strategic objectives and tactical demands of the enterprise.

Building and Sustaining a Continuous Improvement Program
Regardless of technique or methodology, many companies have not identified specific strategies to accomplish their Continuous Improvement goals. In this article from the Shared Services & Outsourcing Network, learn the six steps to success for Continuous Improvement

4 Tests to determine if you are following Agile development
The answer to the following questions is no longer an outright no: Can agile process scale to a large team size?; Can distributed project team claim to be using agile development?; Can off-shored projects work on agile mode?; and Can agile development co-exist with CMMi? Obviously, to be able to answer “yes” to these question we would need to come up with a process which is different from what you would have followed for a ”small”, “co-located” and “cross-functional” team.

C++ Templates: Not a General Case of Generics
Templates have been part of C++ since its creation. The first C++ compilers performed a translation into plain old C code before starting compilation. Consequently, so did C++ generic logic. Today, C++ compilers skip C in their way to object code, but generic logic is still resolved before compilation.

The Business Analyst Role in Agile Software Development
As companies transition to Agile and Scrum to manage their software development projects, how does this affect the work of business analysts? Nancy Nee, VP Global Product Strategy at ESI International, shares her opinion on the role of business analysts in Agile software development projects and how this approach impacts the requirement gathering activity. She also provides some input on how to handle conflict between stakeholders.

SSDs vs. hard drives vs. hybrids: Which storage tech is right for you?
In times past, choosing the best PC storage option required merely selecting the highest-capacity hard drive one could afford. If only life were still so simple! The fairly recent rise of solid-state drives and hybrid drives (which mix standard hard drives with solid-state memory) have significantly altered the storage landscape, creating a cornucopia of confusing options for the everyday consumer.

2013 Challenges for Developers, Part II: Demand for Multiple Language Skills
By this time last year, the term "polyglot programmer" had entered the IT lexicon, and there was plenty of talk about the strategic advantage of learning to use a wider variety of programming languages, frameworks, databases, interface technologies and other development tools. Last year's strategic advantage may be evolving into this year's survival strategy.

Cloud Computing Users Are Losing Data, Symantec Finds
Cloud computing is a ticket to losing data for two in five companies, a new study finds. "It's really kind of astounding," said Dave Elliott, a cloud marketing manager at storage and security company Symantec (SYMC). The company polled more than 3,200 organizations to gauge hidden costs of the cloud and ways to mitigate problems. "Forty-three percent of respondents have lost data in the cloud and have had to recover from backups," Elliott said.

Global tech giants unite to recruit professionals who can Make IT in Ireland
A number of major tech companies with a base in Ireland have come together to promote Ireland’s booming technology sector and the career opportunities therein through a new website and social media campaign. Despite the country’s economic woes, the tech sector has seen unprecedented growth in recent years, employing 74,000 people directly and some 200,000 people indirectly. This has brought with it increased demand for professionals with skills in tech, business and languages

Cloud security key to BYOD, (ISC)2 study shows
Businesses welcome bring your own device (BYOD) policies for the operational cost savings and user experience, according to the (ISC)2 2013 Global Information Security Workforce Study. At the same time, the study – conducted on behalf of the (ISC)2 Foundation by the analyst firm Frost & Sullivan – shows that information security managers admit companies must do more to understand the security of the technologies behind the trend, particularly cloud-based systems and applications.

Quote for the day:

"It is a simple thing to make things complex, but a complex thing to make things simple" -- Albert Einsteen

January 17, 2013

Integrate information governance policy for corporate strategy success
In short, you need to leverage risk management to build effective policies that ensure data quality. Ask and answer the question, "What could go wrong?" Once you've identified potential snags, explore the probability and impact of such risks, and validate your assumptions to suppress false alarms. Then, look to develop policies to mitigate estimable risks; to support these policies, you need a technical architecture that maintains and promotes accessibility, version control and integration.

RIM gets Visa approval for mobile payments via NFC
The system, called Secure Element Manager (SEM), provides software and server infrastructure in the cloud that is managed full-time globally by RIM, said Geoffrey MacGillivray, senior product manager for NFC services at RIM, in an interview. SEM works with the secure element installed in SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards or the embedded secure element installed in NFC-ready mobile devices.

Malware Fights the Power
A recent report by the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (ICS-CERT), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, announced that both "common and sophisticated malware" had infected the controls of a power generation facility.

Microsoft OEM Windows 8 Device Showcase
Microsoft's U.S. OEM chief Peter Han leads the five-minute walkthrough in a showroom on the Microsoft corporate campus. He runs through some of the best features of some convertibles, tablets and all-in-ones. Models include the Sony VAIO Duo 11, Dell XPS 13, Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13, Toshiba Satellite U945, ASUS VivoBook, ASUS VivoTab RT and HP TouchSmart.

Optimizing “Zero Dark Thirty”
“Anytime you’re trying to simulate dust or water or fire, it hits not only the performance layer but the capacity layer, and both quite hard. It means you’re accumulating terabytes within days because you’re simulating millions or billions of particles every minute,” says Gino Del Rosario, head of technology at Vancouver-based Image Engine.

Forrester survey tries to pinpoint hardest-working CISOs across the world
Do chief information security officers (CISOs) in North America work harder than their security counterparts in Europe? That's the conclusion Forrester Research has reached, saying North American security teams seem to have more responsibilities in terms of what they need to oversee and manage than their peers in the European Union, the research firms stated in its report, "Understand Security and Risk Budgeting for 2013."

Using Microsoft POS for .NET in 2011
This is just a reminder, as this was true back in 2006 too. You’d typically expect to be able to install the peripheral’s driver and then utilize it within your .NET application. However, you also need to install intermediary Common Control Objects. I always end up downloading the CCOs from here.

Stop doing what the vendors tell you, CIOs told
In business, setting priorities is essential: whether you’re a retailer focused on selling at the lowest possible price or a boutique that prizes customer service above all else. The problem with CIOs is they don’t appear to share the singular focus of their organisation. In general corporate IT strategies are largely interchangeable and loaded with generic statements about cost and service levels.

Eich tells how to prevent JavaScript memory leaks
Although JavaScript has automatic memory management, it can have issues with memory "leakage," which can harm program performance. The issue is widely known, but it still is a common failure in JavaScript apps. To help developers, InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill asked JavaScript founder Brendan Eich how to deal with and prevent these memory leaks.

How to Use Big Data to Make Faster and Better Business Decisions
By using new Big Data technologies, organizations can answer questions in seconds rather than days and in days rather than months, Barth says. This acceleration, in turn, allows businesses to answer questions that have resisted analysis, develop test and learn processes that quickly adapt to the market and automate complex workflows.

Quote for the day:
"Try, try, try, and keep on trying is the rule that must be followed to become an expert in anything." --W.Clement Stone

January 16, 2013

Engaging with Infrastructure as a Service providers: Advice for SMBs

SearchCIO-Midmarket.com site editor Wendy Schuchart spoke to Nathan McBride, vice president of IT at AMAG Pharmaceuticals Inc., at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2012 in Orlando, Fla., about his company's cloud infrastructure strategy. McBride suggests that organizations must perform due diligence and take certain precautions before engaging with Infrastructure as a Service providers.

Java exploit used in Red October cyberespionage attacks, researchers say
The hundreds of government, military and research organizations targeted in a large-scale cyberespionage operation dubbed Red October were not only attacked using malicious Excel and Word documents as previously believed, but also by using Web-based Java exploits, according to researchers from Israeli IT security firm Seculert.

Facebook takes on Google with Graph Search
Graph Search is the social network's newest way for users to make sense of its massive base of 1 billion users, 240 billion photos, and 1 trillion connections. The tool is meant to provide people the answers to their to their questions about people, photos, places, and interests. Zuckerberg said Graph Search is launching to a small number of people today and is available only on the desktop and in English for the time being.

NuoDB launches cloud-friendly database
The CDMS constitutes a "modern superset of a relational database," said NuoDB co-founder and CEO Barry Morris. NuoDB's design principles follow a set of 12 rules for next-generation databases, Morris said. Among them are the ability to run anywhere, elastic scalability, nonstop availability, a single logical database and distributed security, according to the company.

6 tips to make Windows 8 less annoying
Many of the new mouse gestures are particularly irritating if you've got a large desktop display or are trying to use a trackpad. Fortunately, there are ways to tame the OS for use with keyboard and mouse. After a few weeks on a spanking new PC, here are my top tips for making Windows 8 less annoying.

Feds Look to Big Data to Position 'Government as a Platform'
"We are I think at the verge, just at the tipping point of the data economy, both on the big data side ... as well as thinking about government as a platform for value. We're just now starting to see companies founded on government data," US CIO VanRoekel says. "We can greatly impact the lives of every American just by unlocking pieces of data."

Who is influencing IT budgeting and decisions anyway?
Based on the EA survey results from Gartner events in North America and Europe, analysts estimate that in 2012, EA practitioners had a "final decision-making" influence on $331 billion in worldwide enterprise IT spend and a "great deal of influence" on $774 billion in worldwide enterprise IT spending. Overall, EA practitioners had an influence that is either "final decision maker" or "great deal of influence" on $1.1 trillion in worldwide enterprise IT spending.

Data-driven science is a failure of imagination
Data-driven scientists (data miners) such as Rosling believe that data can tell a story, that observation equals information, that the best way towards scientific progress is to collect data, visualize them and analyze them (data miners are not specific about what analyze means exactly). When you listen to Rosling carefully he sometimes makes data equivalent to statistics: a scientist collects statistics.

The 6 pillars when choosing the right mobile application development platform
Adopting a mobile development application platform on an enterprise or any kind of business level isn’t all that different from buying a house or a car on an individual one. ... The ramifications are profound and the decision must be carefully thought out. In virtue of this crucial choice, enterprises and companies who want to adopt a mobile development application platform solution must take into account these fundamental factors:

Microsoft’s Free Security Tools – Microsoft Security Compliance Manager Tool (SCM)

IT Professionals typically leverage Group Policy for a number of reasons but one of its primary benefits is to help manage security for groups of systems and reduce support costs. While the value of Group Policy is clear, maximizing its potential can sometimes be a daunting task. To help ease the management process for Group Policy, Microsoft released a free tool called the Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM).

Overcoming the fear of risk in Enterprise Collaboration
In the supply chain industry there’s something known as failure mode effects analysis — a complicated term but a rather simple concept. The purpose of the model is to systematically identify, anticipate and mitigate any number of risk factors, as well define follow-up actions should the scenarios present themselves.

Quote for the day:

"Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers." -- Anthony Robbins

January 15, 2013

Application Modernization and the Cloud Connection
Modernizing without a plan delivered via a strong migration methodology can be expensive, time-consuming, laborious and challenging on many fronts -- a combination that may not give organizations the return on investment they're seeking. This often leads organizations to delay their modernization efforts -- adding even more risk and cost to the eventual 'doomsday event' which finally forces modernization.

DDN grabs first slab of 100PB storage cloud
Data Direct Networks (DDN) will provide storage for a node of Australia's Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI), a $AUD50m project aimed at creating a pool of storage the nation's researchers can use to house large quantities of data, the better to feed it into the nation's supercomputers and subject it other forms of analysis.

An Easy Guide For Developing and Publishing Apps in Intel AppUp Store for New Ultrabook Devices
So what is the opportunity there in AppUp? This might just be the first question you may ask if you have never worked with Apps or if you happen to be an existing App developer for Apple or Android market. Let me tell you, AppUp is still in it's early stage and can be considered as a start up. Having said that, there are many good things to start with AppUp

Cloud Computing Services in Russia Offer Huge Growth Potential, Finds Frost & Sullivan
"The continuing adoption of cloud services will have a significant impact on both the public and private sectors in Russia. Implementation of the National Cloud Platform will increase the quality of healthcare and government services due to the unification of services and their higher availability via Internet and public universal access points (terminals)," notes Mr Vyatskikh.

Why We Find it Hard to Change Our Behavior
When we look at our behavior we have to understand that there is a thought going on in our heads that is tripping us up. And we have to change that first. Or we’re working on the wrong thing. The question becomes, “What thoughts do I need to change to make my behavior change?” New behavior will automatically follow a change in thinking. One right thought can correct a lot of bad behavior.

Microsoft keeps calm, issues emergency IE update
"It's as ordinary as only Microsoft could make an [out-of-band] release ordinary," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security, in an interview via instant messaging. "While it's rare they go out of band, their idea of emergency is still calm and to the letter of the process." And that, said Storms, is a good thing.

Paving the way to cloud security certification is a two-way street
Security and compliance go hand in hand when cloud computing is involved. As cloud consumers, enterprises are responsible for defining security policies, authorizing end-user use and understanding cloud compliance requirements. But all that responsibility doesn't fall solely on enterprise IT.

'There is a need for better dialogue between industry and government'
"If you look at the relative economic scenario across the world, I would say that the India story is still very strong" says Sanket Akerkar, MD, Microsoft India in an interview with Dataquest. He shares his views on a wide range of subjects-from the state of the economy to India's growth prospects, the changing approach to IT outsourcing and the key areas where industry and government can work together. Excerpts

7 Ways You're Wasting Time and Don't Even Know It
Berry realized she needed to get smarter about managing time and making Provident Insurance Agency in Florissant, Mo., run more smoothly. She hired a productivity coach and saw immediate results. If you feel as overwhelmed as Berry did, you may need to rethink how you use your time. Here are seven ways you may be wasting time without even realizing it.

Offshoring has fuelled IT skills crisis, say UK firms
“We all look dreadfully surprised when five years later we need to find an [enterprise] architect. Where do we grow architects from? We grow them from our analysts. Then we realise ‘Ah, we don’t have many of those any more because we shifted them out’.” Harris was commenting on the findings of a report for the forum which found that 59 per cent, of forum members have been unable to find people with the right technical or business skills for an IT role.

Quote for the day:

"Knowing when to take your losses is an essential part of eventual success." -- Tom Peters

January 14, 2013

The Right-Hand Man Of Steve Jobs Has Broken His Silence
Higa explained that there were "two things" that got him the job: One was an ability to be frank, honest, and able to go toe-to-toe with him on any question. The other was wide peripheral vision. He’s always wanted that in the people around him. The ability to connect dots is really important. A Renaissance perspective on the world. Because it was always about the intersection of technology and liberal arts.

MapReduce / Map Reduction Strategies Using C#
The C# programming language provides many features and classes that can be used to successfully perform map reduction processing as described in the sections above. In fact, certain forms of parallel map reduction in C# can be performed by individuals having a minimal knowledge of thread pools or hardware specific thread management practices.

John Baldoni on Developing a More Effective Leader
John Baldoni talks about his new book titled "Leader's Pocket Guide 101" in this AMA Edgewise podcast. He explains the importance of critical thinking, self-selection and presence when connecting with your colleagues and shares the mantras he uses to influence others: competence, credibility, and confidence.

An inside look at Internet Explorer 10's mysterious Flash whitelist
For Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 8 and Windows RT, Microsoft has tried to walk a delicate balancing act with Flash. The underlying theory is that Flash itself isn't evil. Instead, its bad reputation can be traced to the impact of poorly written Flash programs, which drain batteries and hog CPU resources, or malicious Flash content that exploits weaknesses in the Flash runtime to spread malware.

White Paper: Increasing Marketing RoI with Predictive Response Models
What is surprising, is that while predictive response modelling usually does improve response rates, in many cases it actually increases customer acquisition cost per account ... To overcome these challenges, Integrated Marketing employs an alternative approach, called the Value Adjusted Optimization Model that is changing how many in the industry manage their direct marketing campaigns. - Download requires free subscription.

US judge rules for Texas school district in RFID tracking case
Unlike passive chips that transmit data only when scanned by a reader, these chips have batteries and broadcast a constant signal so they can track students' locations on school property. Andrea Hernandez was one student who took issue with the badge, saying she had religious and privacy concerns and refused to wear it. Since then, her case went to court but now a judge has ruled against her.

Driving Analytic Value From New Data
The use of new information can enable huge leaps in the effectiveness, predictive power, and accuracy of your analytics. Most of the time, effort is spent trying to incrementally improve results by using existing data and information in a more effective manner. This isn’t as much because analytic professionals don’t realize that new data can be powerful as it is because new data only becomes available occasionally.

Implementing RSA asymmetric public-private key encryption in C#: encrypting under the public key
Performing RSA Encryption is not particularly difficult, but neither is it straightforward. Andrew writes in his blog with C# code sample - To make this code more general, we are going to allow users to specify the bit length of the public key, allowing us to easily encrypt under 1024, 2048 and 4096 bit keys.

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of C
Damien's love with C: I've had intense and torrid love affairs with Java, C++, and Erlang. I've built things I'm proud of with all of them, and yet each has broken my heart. They've made promises they couldn't keep, created cultures that focus on the wrong things, and made devastating tradeoffs that eventually make you suffer painfully. And I keep crawling back to C.

HCL Technologies is Coming of Age in Asia
Revenue-wise, HCL is the fifth largest India centric IT service providers after TCS, Infosys, Cognizant and Wipro. While it only derived about 15% of its global FY12 revenues from markets outside of Europe and the U.S., lightly lower than the four larger Indian firms, HCL has built a strong base in Asia and now boasts more than 300 customers serviced by more than 8,000 employees.

How to Create Governance Policies in InfoSphere Business Glossary 9.1
Business Glossary 9.1 can act as the central nervous system for a Data Governance program. Previous versions of the product allowed the cataloguing and management of technical and business metadata – Categories, Terms, Database tables, BI Fields, ETL Jobs. The new version adds in Policies and Terms so you can document and define a greater range of Governance requirements – with the pay off that Rules can be linked straight to the information assets that must conform to those rules via Glossary linking.

Quote for the day:

‎"The act of taking the first step is what separates the winners from the losers." -- Brian Tracy